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Sunday the 16th of May 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Sunday the 16th of May 2010

1. Virus Warnings
2. Daily Technology News
3. Latest Shareware and Freeware
4. FAQ for the day
5. Advice of the day

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For free technical support, visit us at http://www.helpforce.com

1. Latest Virus Alerts From Sophos
---------------------------------------
Troj/Agent-NIT on 16 May 2010 05:55:25 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentnit.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/NtRootK-FT on 16 May 2010 05:55:25 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojntrootkft.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/WinTrim-S on 16 May 2010 03:46:04 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojwintrims.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/WinTrim-R on 16 May 2010 01:32:54 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojwintrimr.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Zbot-OZ on 15 May 2010 22:35:09 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojzbotoz.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Zbot-PA on 15 May 2010 22:35:09 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojzbotpa.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/Swapi-A on 15 May 2010 17:07:48 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malswapia.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Bank-AJ on 15 May 2010 17:07:48 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbankaj.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Zbot-OY on 15 May 2010 17:07:48 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojzbotoy.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-NIR on 15 May 2010 11:04:30 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentnir.html?_log_from=rss

2. Latest Technology News From Slashdot
-----------------------------------------------

-- Any Open Source Solutions For DIY Auto Diagnostics?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/zHZ-jcFNjjA/Any-Open-Source-Solutions-For-DIY-Auto-Diagnostics)
slaxx writes "As an avid tinkerer, I really want to collect as much data about my car as possible. Using On-Board Diagnostics (OBDII) sounded great to me, but the pricetags of systems like AutoTap Scanner are a bit much for my college budget to handle. Are there any free, open source solutions available? What do Slashdotters do to tinker and record the inner workings of their own vehicles?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Trailer For Blender Open Movie Sintel Ready
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/hNUsOcS5DQc/Trailer-For-Blender-Open-Movie-emSintelem-Ready)
l_i_g_h_s_p_e_e_d writes "The trailer for Sintel is ready. (We discussed the beginnings of this project in 2007.) 'After many weeks of fighting technology, here's a first glimpse of this wonderful short film that's shaping up here.' Sintel is a Blender Open Movie project created using only FLOSS software. 'For the entire creation pipeline in the studio, we will only use free/open source software. We have less than 2 months now to finish this completely... imagine the tension that's building up here to get everything perfect. For today, we'll celebrate a big step forward.' Download here."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Firefox With H.264 HTML 5 Support = Wild Fox
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/7XY94TooVAI/Firefox-With-H264-HTML-5-Support--Wild-Fox)
Elledan writes "Only two countries in the world have software patents which make it impossible to freely use video codecs such as AVC (H.264). This has led to projects such as Firefox not including AVC support with the HTML 5 video tag in all their releases, resulting in the rest of the world having to suffer indirectly the effects of software patents as well. To rectify this situation at least somewhat, I have created the Wild Fox project, which aims to release Firefox builds with the features previously excluded due to software patents. This software will be available to those in non-software patent encumbered countries. Any developers who wish to join the project are more than welcome."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- AMD's Fusion CPU + GPU Will Ship This Year
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/z5BvxuJWdfQ/AMDs-Fusion-CPU--GPU-Will-Ship-This-Year)
mr_sifter writes "Intel might have beaten AMD to the punch with a CPU featuring a built-in GPU, but it relied on a relatively crude process of simply packaging two separate dies together. AMD's long-discussed Fusion product integrates the two key components into one die, and the company is confident it will be out this year — earlier than had been expected."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Steve Jobs Says PC Folks' World Is Slipping Away
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/wP5LDBgYS24/Steve-Jobs-Says-PC-Folks-World-Is-Slipping-Away)
theodp writes "Provoked by an iPad ad promising a 'revolution,' Valleywag's Ryan Tate fired off a late-night missive to Steve Jobs. Jobs responded, and the two engaged in an after-midnight e-mail debate over lockdown, Cocoa vs. Flash, battery life, and whether 'freedom from porn' is a bug or a feature. 'The times they are a changin',' quipped Jobs, 'and some traditional PC folks feel like their world is slipping away. It is.' Tate was unswayed by the Apple CEO's reality distortion field, but did come away impressed by Jobs' willingness to spar one-on-one over his beliefs. At 2:00 in the morning on a weekend."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Microsoft Accuses Google Docs of Data Infidelity
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/OKVGqtK3zsM/Microsoft-Accuses-Google-Docs-of-Data-Infidelity)
Hugh Pickens writes "For years Google has been pitching migrations from Microsoft Office to Google Docs, arguing that Docs makes Office 2003 and 2007 better because users can store Microsoft Office documents in Google's cloud and share them in their original format. Now eWeek reports that Alex Payne, director of Microsoft's online product management team, says that moving files created with Office to Google Docs results in the loss of data fidelity including the loss of such data components as charts, styles, watermarks, fonts, tracked changes, and SmartArt. 'They are claiming that an organization can use both seamlessly,' Payne writes. 'This just isn't the case.' Meanwhile, Google defended its original 'Docs makes Office better' in a statement, noting that it has made a lot of improvements to the Web editors in Docs with its recent refresh, and promising that functionality will only get better as Google integrates the DocVerse assets into Docs. 'It says a lot about Microsoft's approach to customer lock-in that the company touts its proprietary document formats, which only Microsoft software can render with true fidelity, as the reason to avoid using other products,' says a Google spokesperson."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Obama Sends Nuclear Experts To Tackle BP Oil Spill
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/D3XfS4wYXl4/Obama-Sends-Nuclear-Experts-To-Tackle-BP-Oil-Spill)
An anonymous reader writes "The US has sent a team of nuclear physicists to help BP plug the 'catastrophic' flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from its leaking Deepwater Horizon well, as the Obama administration becomes frustrated with the oil giant's inability to control the situation. The five-man team — which includes a man who helped develop the first hydrogen bomb in the 1950s — is the brainchild of Steven Chu, President Obama's Energy Secretary." Let's hope this doesn't mean they actually try the nuclear option. In other offshore drilling news, reader mygoditsfullofdoom informs us that a Venezuelan gas rig has sunk in the Caribbean (with no loss of life). This one is being laid at the feet of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA, which hasn't exactly been regarded as uber-competent "after President Hugo Chavez fired half the company's managers and senior engineers following a 2002 strike."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Google Stops Selling Its Own Phone
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/HgcSTCe4Vwg/Google-Stops-Selling-Its-Own-Phone)
Dave Knott notes that Google has announced it will close its online cell phone store and no longer sell the Nexus One smart phone directly to consumers. "While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not," wrote Andy Rubin, a Google VP of Engineering, on the official company blog. "It's remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it's clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from." From the Globe and Mail article: "At least one aspect of Google's attempt to disrupt the world of mobile communications — selling phones directly to customers — has failed. ... [T]he decision to design and sell the Nexus One was perhaps more potentially disruptive for carriers. ... Google plans to continue marketing the Nexus One through 'existing retail channels, essentially partnering with carriers around the world. The Nexus One web store, meanwhile, will essentially become a marketing portal 'to showcase a variety of Android phones available globally.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Developer-Friendly Banks?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/OXJstNZ8m3o/Developer-Friendly-Banks)
tyen writes "Any suggestions for a 'developer-friendly' bank for small businesses? The banking world is awash in data protocols that business customers who are/have coders would find useful, like BAI to extract all the raw data from an ACH or SWIFT transfer. Unfortunately, the ones I have spoken with about this access are still stuck in the Dark Ages of computing; they price the access like only big companies still have the skills to tap into these interfaces. For example, one of the four US banks with a perfect trading record this past quarter quoted us USD five figures for access to several of our accounts via BAI format. Per year. After waiving sign-up fees. Are there any banks out there that have a more progressive attitude about letting small, entrepreneurial developers work with their business accounts in a more modern, dare we say automated, way? With big businesses demanding EFT integration from small business vendors, and globalization rewarding premiums to nimble, lean businesses that automate wherever possible, automating the retrieval of this information (which is not available in consumer-oriented access like OFX) becomes an increasingly pressing issue for the small guys."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- The Laser Turns 50
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/1aMgywvlAWI/The-Laser-Turns-50)
sonicimpulse writes with news that tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of physicist Theodore Maiman's creation of the first operational laser.
"Theodore Maiman made the first laser operate on 16 May 1960 at the Hughes Research Laboratory in California, by shining a high-power flash lamp on a ruby rod with silver-coated surfaces. He promptly submitted a short report of the work to the journal Physical Review Letters, but the editors turned it down. Some have thought this was because the Physical Review had announced that it was receiving too many papers on masers — the longer-wavelength predecessors of the laser — and had announced that any further papers would be turned down. But Simon Pasternack, who was an editor of Physical Review Letters at the time, has said that he turned down this historic paper because Maiman had just published, in June 1960, an article on the excitation of ruby with light, with an examination of the relaxation times between quantum states, and that the new work seemed to be simply more of the same. Pasternack's reaction perhaps reflects the limited understanding at the time of the nature of lasers and their significance."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Penumbra: Overture Goes Open Source
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/4NwQl-mwsKo/emPenumbra-Overtureem-Goes-Open-Source)
As promised when the Humble Indie Bundle hit $1 million in donations the other day, indie developer Frictional Games has released Penumbra: Overture's source code. "The code for Penumbra: Overture is a continuation of the one used for the tech demo + some addition for the not so long lived Robo Hatch project. It also contains some code from Unbirth, giving it quite some history." The release also includes the HPL1 engine. "This is engine that has powered all of the Penumbra games and it even includes the stuff used to create the 2D platformer Energetic. The engine code was started in December 2004 and was actively developed until early 2008." The repositories are available at github.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Facebook Throws Privacy Advocates a Bone
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/vrYCiSLnVm8/Facebook-Throws-Privacy-Advocates-a-Bone)
sarysa writes "In response to a week-long assault by privacy advocates, and following a well publicized all-hands meeting, Facebook has introduced two new security features in response to privacy concerns. One feature allows users to whitelist devices associated with a Facebook account, and the other allows users who verify their identity to view previous logins. While both are useful features, they do nothing to address the recent privacy complaints."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Inventor Demonstrates Infinitely Variable Transmission
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/29j0JREhMrQ/Inventor-Demonstrates-Infinitely-Variable-Transmission)
ElectricSteve writes with this excerpt from Gizmag:
"Ready for a bit of a mental mechanical challenge? Try your hand at understanding how the D-Drive works. Steve Durnin's ingenious new gearbox design is infinitely variable — that is, with your motor running at a constant speed, the D-Drive transmission can smoothly transition from top gear all the way through neutral and into reverse. It doesn't need a clutch, it doesn't use any friction drive components, and the power is always transmitted through strong, reliable gear teeth. In fact, it's a potential revolution in transmission technology."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- A Look At CERN's LHC Grid-Computing Architecture
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/j0K7uckHzWg/A-Look-At-CERNs-LHC-Grid-Computing-Architecture)
blair1q writes "Using a four-tiered architecture (from CERN's central computer at Tier 0 to individual scientists' desk/lap/palmtops at Tier 3), CERN is distributing LHC data and computations across resources worldwide to achieve aggregate computational power unprecedented in high-energy physics research. As an example, 'researchers can sit at their laptops, write small programs or macros, submit the programs through the AliEn system, find the necessary ALICE data on AliEn servers, then run their jobs' on upper-tier systems. The full grid comprises small computers, supercomputers, computer clusters, and mass-storage data centers. This system allows 1,000 researchers at 130 organizations in 34 countries to crunch the data, which are disgorged at a rate of 1.25 GB per second from the LHC's detectors."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Senators Demand NASA Continue Spending On Ares
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/nYT1DL0Zy4M/Senators-Demand-NASA-Continue-Spending-On-Ares)
FleaPlus writes "Senators Richard Shelby (R-AL and ranking member of the appropriations subcommittee handling NASA funding) and Robert Bennett (R-UT) have added an amendment onto an emergency spending bill for military operations in Afghanistan, reiterating that NASA must continue spending its funds on the Constellation program, particularly the medium-lift Ares I rocket. Alabama and Utah have strong ties to Ares/Constellation contractors, and both senators are opposed to the new direction for NASA, with Shelby describing it as a 'death march' for US spaceflight and criticizing the emphasis on commercial rockets."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

3. Latest Shareware from Planet-Shareware
-----------------------------------------------

4. FAQ of the day from Helpforce
-----------------------------------------------

-- How do you deleate items on privacy report explorer 6?
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: How do you deleate items on privacy report explorer 6?

Answer: It depends on what you mean by "delete". To clear the report of any web pages and cookies, clear your temporary Internet files, cookies, and history. While in Internet Explorer 6, go to Tools, Internet Options, Delete Cookies, then Delete Files, Then Clear History...This should clear the privacy Report. To be sure you have removed everything, you may also want to go to your Temporary Internet files Folder (in XP, usually located in C:/Documents and Setting/Default/Local Settings/Temporary Internet Files. You may see a lot of cookies and internet-related files here. You should clear this folder periodically to prevent it from becoming too large...Edit, Select All, Delete. If you want to change the way Internet Explorer Privacy handles certain web sites and cookies, 'right click' on the cookie listed in the privacy report and you can choose to have it Always Accept, Always Reject or use the default method for the current privacy settings. What privacy setting works best for any person recquires "experimenting" with different settings to see what is most desirable.

5. Advice of the Day from ask-leo
-----------------------------------------------

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